The Wickedest Lord Alive by Christina Brooke
Historical Romance
Released July 1, 2014
St. Martin’s Paperbacks

Review by Sheena

Favorite Quote: “No, I’m not jealous,” he said calmly.  But if I see his hands on you again, I shall shoot him through the heart.”

He WAS jealous!”

Well I declare.  This was certainly intriguing.  All the fluff and puff that I love in my historical romances but this time with an edge of danger and a tinge of darkness.  The Lord is (naturally) a pompous rake!  The heroine is a lovely young maiden – a virgin used in the most low down way to pay off a gambling debt.  You’ve just gotta love the days gone by where women were treated as commodities to be traded and bid upon. (Grimace.)   Xavier Westruther, Marquis of Steyne is insufferable and cruel- oh but he is!  But this kind of character development  keeps me reading.  While he is dark, brooding and brutish, there is more beneath the surface.  He is beholden to his mother, a gambling addict of the worst kind and their relationship is as toxic and demanding as any I’ve read before.  While I found him severe in nature, I also sympathized with him and (deep breath) I wanted to heal his hardened heart!

 “She must dare.  She needed to understand his attitude even if she could not honor him for it.  But what came out of her mouth was, “I hope I am with child.”

He halted on his way to the door, but did not turn around.

In a subdued voice, he said, “God help you, then,” and left.

*Face palm* I know right, what a craptastic thing to say to the young woman you just deflowered and washed off with a cold, wet rag. Suave.

Lady Alexandra  has come of age and her truly evil and opportunistic father has traded her virtue and hand in marriage to settle up Xavier’s mother’s mountainous gambling debt.  It broke my heart how wide eyed and positive and down right brave she managed to be in the face of her circumstances.  I believe in her naiveté, she loved Xavier from the start and when he abused her emotions I wanted to gut punch him!  Feeling cast off and running away to save her self from- well herself, Alexandra assumes a new identity, Lizzie Allbright, and comes to enjoy her small town life, until she once again finds herself put in the way of Xavier and this time his sentiments regarding her carrying his child have certainly changed!

Eight years, Lizzie spent in her new life and during this time she grows and matures, but Xavier remains stagnant, always fighting to  avoid being ensnared in his mother’s crooked affairs, he is still the same Xavier we met from the start. Only now Lizzie is no fledgling young girl he can manipulate. Lizzie has grown and he was unprepared for the spark and attraction that nags him.  Not only can he not believe that she found him appealing and dared to love him, he knows he has rightfully earned his reputation and low opinions, and finds himself in love.  There was no “falling” in love. Just indifference, avoidance, plots and manipulations and staggering attraction and then pow… he’s there.  Oddly it worked for me.

What I found most unusual about this story is that the romance between hero and heroine was not the most compelling love story being told.  The destructive and volatile, cancerous  love or lack thereof between Xavier and his mother was gripping.  She was horrific and abusive and an emotional batterer.  Her actions throughout The Wickedest Lord, shocked me to no end and gave an unexpected depth to the punchy historical romance novel.

Xavier is the rake of my historical dreams. Tall, handsome, with silky dark hair and sooty lashes that fan his skin when he closes his eyes while he…Yeah. Umm he totally worked for me.

 “At least when losing himself in Lizzie, he managed to keep the demons at bay…With what seemed like teeth-clenching restraint, he entered her slowly, inching forward.  His hands lifted her legs, encouraging her to wrap them around his waist…his thumb pressed the fleshy knot above the place they were joined, and slowly circled, and circled, taking her high as a bird in flight.

The explosion of pleasure took her so violently that her back arched…and his own crisis followed swiftly.  he thrust into her hard and fast, pumping his seed into her womb.  She was his now. Finally.”

*sips ice water*

*pitches the cup and dumps whole head in ice bucket*  Nothing gets me blushing like historical romances and their nubs and knots and seed dispensing! haha.

I was a bit disappointed that the romance took a back seat to his mommy dearest issues.  (She was seriously dastardly!) This is certainly a stand alone book, but with many of the supporting characters, I felt a little out of the loop, as if I were missing out on the joke sometimes, like I should have particular feelings about them that were suggested in text but hadn’t really manifested. But  this was not too distracting enough to take away from the story.

The writing is witty and fun.  I could barely tear myself away from it.  The author doles out the story in carefully crafted handfuls designed to have you reaching for more.  My mind was a whirlwind, I had so many questions and as I read that I would find myself thrilled when a scene revealed an answer.   This is the epitome of a page turner, you expect a HEA but the tale is not boring and predictable, especially the climax where it is not a given that any one character will triumph.  There were few enough pages toward the end,  to nearly make me stroke out at the turn of events.

 Grade: B+

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